Did you miss a flight this past weekend? Southwest Airlines cancelled 1,900 of them, causing many thousands of people to languish in airports, scrambling for a way out. There were typically no cars to rent. They had to take Ubers to the closest hotel, hoping for a room but it was often the case that the hotels were full. Yep, it was total chaos for many, and a public-relations disaster for the airline itself.
Basically, it was a disaster. And it could not have happened at a worse time. Airlines are struggling on every front, barely recovering from 20 months of hell. This only discourages travel and it costs billions.
So I drifted over the Twitter account to see what the airline was saying. They said many flights were cancelled and delayed due to…weather. But this was also very strange because the weather map showed no signs of unusual weather at all. Clearly this was a lie. And anyone and everyone could see it.
Lies and Truth
And this little scene typifies life in America today. Public messaging these days is almost always a lie. The truth one has must tease out of clues. It must have been this way in the darkest times of the Soviet Union. All official sources explained away the disaster. You could only find out what was true by talking to people in whispers. Those whispers certainly do not translate into any honest telling within the mainstream press.
What is happening comes down to the vaccine mandate that affects all pilots, attendants, and every other worker at the airline. The mucky mucks at the head of the company believe that they are bound by the Biden vaccine mandate, even though the Biden administration has issued no regulations at all on private companies — only government agencies and contractors.
But the airline has accepted billions in bailout funds, and fears defying the government. The piper is playing the tune of the institution that pays. So Southwest is planning to impose these mandates on everyone starting the first week of December, following the lead of United Airlines. In this case, however, pilots and many other workers are refusing the vaccines due to natural immunity to the willingness to risk infection. They assume they will be fired. They are probably correct.
On Twitter, many people are calling this a “sick out.” It’s not exactly a strike as such. In fact, if they were striking to oppose the mandates, what they are doing would be declared illegal. Instead, they are merely taking sick leave, calling in one by one. They are being paid for the last month or two of their employment as a matter of their contract. Better to take that sick leave now, rather than lose it all later.
There are aspects of this that are indeed a strike. But no one can say so, especially not the company. As a result, we are all just pretending. Meanwhile, because the labor unions despise these mandates, other pilots and workers are joining the strike or, sick out. As I write, another 1,000 flights are being cancelled — and many consumers are cheering this because they know that the workers are fighting for fundamental rights.”
- editorial by Jeffrey Tucker